Claiming Social Security at 62 pays 70%; at 70 it pays 124%
With full retirement age 67, a $2,000 benefit is $1,400 at 62 and $2,480 at 70. The three ages, the break-even ages and the survivor rule, from SSA's tables.
- What happened
- For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67. The Social Security Administration's tables show a benefit claimed at 62 is reduced 30%, and one delayed to 70 is increased 24%. A $2,000 full-age benefit is therefore $1,400 at 62, $2,000 at 67 and $2,480 at 70, before cost-of-living adjustments.
- Why
- The reduction is 5/9 of 1% a month for the first 36 months before full retirement age and 5/12 of 1% a month beyond that. The delayed retirement credit is 2/3 of 1% a month, 8% a year, from full retirement age to 70, and nothing after 70.
- The numbers that matter
- 30%Reduction at 62 for full retirement age 67 (SSA, age-reduction table, retrieved October 20, 2026)24%Delayed retirement credits from 67 to 70 at 8% a year (SSA, delayed retirement page)78 years 8 monthsAge at which cumulative nominal benefits from claiming at 67 overtake claiming at 62 (calculation)$2,170Average monthly benefit, all retired workers, January 2027 after the 3.6% COLA (SSA fact sheet)
- Why it matters
- The claiming month fixes the percentage for life, and for a married couple the higher earner's choice also fixes the widow or widower's benefit.
- What happens nextas we saw it on 20 Oct 2026
- The 2027 earnings-test exempt amount of $25,560 and the 3.6% COLA take effect with benefits payable in January 2027, per SSA's fact sheet certified October 14, 2026.
The same earnings record pays $1,400 a month at 62 or $2,480 at 70, a spread of 77% between the two ends.
| Claim at 62 (70%) | 1400 |
|---|---|
| Claim at 65 (86.67%) | 1733 |
| Claim at 67 (100%) | 2000 |
| Claim at 70 (124%) | 2480 |
A worker born in 1960 or later who is entitled to $2,000 a month at full retirement age can take $1,400 a month at 62 or $2,480 a month at 70. The gap between the two is $1,080 a month, and it lasts for life. Nothing about the worker's earnings record changes between the two figures. Only the month of the first check does.
The Social Security Administration publishes the exact percentages. This piece walks through them for the three ages people most often compare, 62, 67 and 70, adds up what each path pays by ages 75, 80, 85 and 90, finds the break-even points, and sets out the survivor rule that makes the higher earner's decision a decision for two people. It is arithmetic, not advice.
The three percentages: 70%, 100%, 124%
SSA's planner states that full retirement age rises by birth year “until it reaches 67 for people born in 1960 and later” and that “the earliest a person can start receiving Social Security retirement benefits will remain at age 62.” The benefit payable at full retirement age is the primary insurance amount, or PIA. Every other figure in this article is a percentage of it.
SSA's Office of the Chief Actuary states that “a benefit is reduced 5/9 of one percent for each month before normal retirement age, up to 36 months. If the number of months exceeds 36, then the benefit is further reduced 5/12 of one percent per month.” For a full retirement age of 67, claiming at 62 is 60 months early. The page gives the result: “36 months times 5/9 of 1 percent plus 24 months times 5/12 of 1 percent” is a reduction of 30 percent. SSA's age-reduction table shows the same row for “1960 and later”: a $1,000 benefit at 62 becomes $700.
SSA's delayed retirement page lists a “12-month rate of increase” of 8.0%, or “2/3 of 1%” a month, for people born in 1943 or later. “The benefit increase stops when you reach age 70.” From 67 to 70 is 36 months × 2/3 of 1% = 24 percent. The actuary's page adds that “no credit is given after age 69,” meaning there is no reason in the formula to wait past the 70th birthday.
Inputs: PIA $2,000; reduction at 62 of 30%; credits at 70 of 24%. At 62: $2,000 × (1 − 0.30) = $1,400. At 67: $2,000. At 70: $2,000 × 1.24 = $2,480. For the chart, claiming at 65 is 24 months early: 24 × 5/9 of 1% = 13.33% reduction, so $2,000 × 0.8667 = $1,733. The percentages apply to any PIA. SSA's fact sheet puts the average benefit for all retired workers at $2,170 a month from January 2027; the same 70% and 124% applied to a $2,170 PIA give $1,519 and $2,691, though an average benefit is not itself a PIA.
One detail of timing: SSA says that if benefits start between full retirement age and 70, “some of your delayed retirement credits will not be applied until the January after you start receiving benefits.”
What each path has paid by 75, 80, 85 and 90
The monthly figures tell half the story. The early claimer collects for longer. The table below multiplies each monthly benefit by the months received up to each birthday. It is in nominal dollars and ignores cost-of-living adjustments, which raise all three paths by the same percentage each year and so do not change their ranking or break-even ages. It also ignores taxes, Medicare premiums and any return on money received early.
| Claiming age | Monthly | By age 75 | By age 80 | By age 85 | By age 90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | $1,400 | $218,400 | $302,400 | $386,400 | $470,400 |
| 67 | $2,000 | $192,000 | $312,000 | $432,000 | $552,000 |
| 70 | $2,480 | $148,800 | $297,600 | $446,400 | $595,200 |
62 versus 67: the early path has a 60-month head start worth 60 × $1,400 = $84,000, and the later path gains $600 a month once both are paying. $84,000 ÷ $600 = 140 months after 67, which is age 78 years 8 months. Check: 200 months × $1,400 = $280,000 and 140 months × $2,000 = $280,000. 67 versus 70: head start 36 × $2,000 = $72,000, gain $480 a month, $72,000 ÷ $480 = 150 months after 70, which is age 82 years 6 months. 62 versus 70: head start 96 × $1,400 = $134,400, gain $1,080 a month, 124.4 months after 70, which is age 80 and about 4 months. These ages do not depend on the size of the PIA, because every term scales with it.
At 75 the early claimer is ahead of both alternatives by a wide margin. At 80 the three totals are within $15,000 of each other. At 85 the order has fully reversed, and at 90 the age-70 path has paid $124,800 more than the age-62 path.
What SSA's own life table says about those ages
SSA's Office of the Chief Actuary publishes a “Period Life Table, 2023, as used in the 2026 Trustees Report.” Life expectancy at exact age 62 is 20.29 years for a male and 23.08 years for a female, which point to ages 82.3 and 85.1. At 67 the figures are 16.71 and 19.08 years (ages 83.7 and 86.1). At 70 they are 14.66 and 16.76 years (ages 84.7 and 86.8). The one-year death probability at 62 is 0.013196 for males and 0.008220 for females.
The 62-versus-67 break-even of 78 years 8 months is below every one of the life-table averages above. The 67-versus-70 break-even of 82 years 6 months is close to the male average at 62 and below the female averages. A period life table describes the population in 2023, not any one person, and it is a mean: roughly half of people live longer than the figure and half shorter. Health, family history and whether a spouse depends on the benefit move the individual answer in ways no table captures.
The survivor rule: one claiming age sets two benefits
SSA's Program Operations handbook, section 407.1, states that “the widow(er)'s insurance benefit rate equals 100 percent of the deceased worker's primary insurance amount” “plus any additional amount the deceased worker was entitled to because of delayed retirement credits.” Section 407.2 lists, among the situations in which the payable amount is lower, that “the deceased worker was entitled to a reduced retirement benefit for the month before the month he or she died.” SSA's survivor page says payments “start at 71.5% of your spouse's benefit” for a survivor claiming at 60 and reach “up to 100% when you reach your Full Retirement Age for Survivor benefits.”
Inputs: deceased worker's PIA $2,000; delayed retirement credits of 24%. The survivor at his or her own full retirement age receives $2,000 × 1.24 = $2,480 a month. A survivor claiming at 60 receives 71.5% of that: $2,480 × 0.715 = $1,773.20, against $2,000 × 0.715 = $1,430.00 had the worker claimed at full retirement age with no credits. If the worker had claimed early and was receiving a reduced benefit, the handbook says the survivor amount is lower still; the exact reduced-benefit formula is not quoted here because it was not on the page retrieved.
This is what single-life break-even tables miss. For a couple, the higher earner's benefit is paid for as long as either spouse is alive, because the survivor steps up to it. Its horizon is the longer of two lifetimes. The lower earner's own benefit ends at the first death, so its horizon is the shorter of the two.
What it means for your money
Three mechanical points follow from SSA's rules for an ordinary household.
- The percentage is permanent. Claiming at 62 fixes 70% of the PIA for life. Each later COLA, including the 3.6% for January 2027, is applied to the reduced figure, so the dollar gap to the full benefit widens over time even as the percentage gap stays fixed.
- Earnings before full retirement age can hold back the early benefit. SSA's retirement earnings test withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings above an exempt amount of $24,480 in 2026 and $25,560 in 2027. A 63-year-old earning $44,480 in 2026 is $20,000 over the line, so $10,000 of benefits is withheld, roughly seven months of a $1,400 benefit. SSA says withheld benefits are not “lost”: the monthly benefit is permanently increased after full retirement age to account for the withheld months. In the year of reaching full retirement age the exempt amount is $65,160 in 2026 and $67,920 in 2027, with $1 withheld per $3; from the month of full retirement age the test ends.
- The three paths need different bridges. Someone who stops work at 62 and claims at 70 must fund 96 months of spending from savings. On the $2,000 PIA example, that is 96 × $1,400 = $134,400 of benefit not taken in exchange for $1,080 more a month afterwards. Whether a household has that bridge is a question about the household, not the formula.
Readers who want to see how long a given pot of savings lasts under different withdrawal paths can use the freedom number tool. The arithmetic of a fixed withdrawal rate is in the four percent rule piece, and how the COLA is computed is in the 2027 COLA piece.
Sources
- Early or Late Retirement? (Office of the Chief Actuary)Social Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
- Benefit Reduction for Early Retirement (retirement planner)Social Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
- Delayed Retirement Credits (retirement planner)Social Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
- Full Retirement Age (retirement planner)Social Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
- 2027 Social Security Changes, COLA fact sheet (certified October 14, 2026)Social Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
- Period Life Table, 2023, as used in the 2026 Trustees Report (Office of the Chief Actuary)Social Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
- Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test (Office of the Chief Actuary)Social Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
- Social Security Handbook, section 407: Amount of Widow(er)'s Insurance BenefitSocial Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
- What you could get from Survivor benefitsSocial Security Administration · Oct 20, 2026 · Primary source
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